Apparatus/devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, gaming devices, e-book readers, etc typically utilise electronic displays to provide useful information as user content to a user. User content can consist of text, colour/gray-scale images, movies/videos, news/information tickers, etc. These can often be provided via software such as web browsers, e-book reading programs, photo or video editors, etc. This user content provided can typically be changed or varied according to the functionality desired by the user.
Many mobile phones, for example, utilise a single screen/display or single type of screen/display to present all information and user content to a user (see, for example, Motorola Krave touch phone). Such displays are typically active light emitting screens that continuously emit light to provide content to a user (for example, LCD, TFT, EL screens, etc). The active nature of such displays means that they can change their displayed information/content very rapidly, which makes them suitable for displaying dynamic content such as movies, video clips, animations, scrolling text, web browser application, etc. However, these types of screens require a constant steady supply of power to continue providing user content, and the user content to be displayed must constantly be provided to the display to keep the content on screen.
This constant need for power to actively display user content on active light emitting displays is one reason many devices/apparatus have a standby/screensaver mode in which power to the screen is switched off when the device considers that it is not presently being used by a user (for example, mobile phones, computers, laptops, etc). This helps to ensure that power is not being wasted during a period of ‘non-use’, but is only used when a user may wish to operate the device or view content on the device.
In other devices, such as e-book readers, an electrophoretic screen/display is utilised (also known as electrophoretic paper). The basics of electrophoretic display technology are well known in the art. To date, the only commercially available type of electrophoretic display displays content in black and white, but colour electrophoretic displays are currently being developed. Electrophoretic displays are different to light emitting screens in several different ways. Electrophoretic displays display content via the reflection of ambient light as opposed to emitting their own light (i.e. they do not require a backlight to clearly display their content to a user). Another key difference between these displays and active light emitting displays is that electrophoretic displays do not require a constant application of power and streaming of user content in order to maintain the content on screen. Instead, an initial application of power biases the display to provide particular content (such as static text or an unchanging image) and after this initial application of power the display will stably display that image until another application of power and updated user content biases the display to change the provided content.
In essence, electrophoretic displays do not require power to be continuously applied in order for them to continuously display user content (unlike active displays). This allows electrophoretic displays to display particular content indefinitely once it has initially been configured to provide that particular content.
However, current electrophoretic display technology is not suitable for the display of information/content which needs to be rapidly updated. It takes a comparatively long period of time to alter the provided content from a first state to a second state (in comparison with active displays).
GB2389696 describes a hybrid display that has active display elements and reflective display elements, the reflective elements being positioned to overlie and to be adjacent to the active elements. The underlying active display elements are not viewable through the overlying reflective elements. The document also teaches that the displays provide for the same user information.
The listing or discussion of a prior-published document or any background in this specification should not necessarily be taken as an acknowledgement that the document or background is part of the state of the art or is common general knowledge. One or more aspects/embodiments of the present disclosure may or may not address one or more of the background issues.